The best of friends
by Amy V
Summary: Victoria reminisces about friendship's day.


**The best of friends**

Chapter one

It was a chilly morning in Los Angeles.

Victoria Escalante was busy setting the tables for breakfast. Children's laughter echoed from outside. The mission school was about to start and apparently something exciting was about to happen. Victoria waved at the children: "Have a nice day at school," she said.

"We will Senorita Escalante, it's friendship day and we've made a friendship bracelet for our best friend!" one of the children replied excited.

Victoria smiled; she too had some fond memories of her friendship days. But her smile disappeared when she saw Angie sadly walk to school. Her tear stricken face glued on the dusty ground. Angie reminded her of herself when she was a little girl. She too was quite a tomboy, she always saw Angie playing with the boys, but the smile that usually decorated Angie's face was now replaced by a sad grimace.

"Angie what's wrong?" Victoria asked concerned.

"It's this stupid friendship day, I wanted to be best friends with Tom, but he said girls were stupid he wanted to be friends with Cole," she said still sniffing.

"I had the same problem when I was your age, boys didn't want to be my friend either," Victoria revealed to the distressed girl.

"Really? But all the single men of the pueblo want to court you, Don Diego is your friend **and** you're Zorro's girlfriend," Angie stated disbelievingly.

"Really, when I was eleven years old none of the boys paid attention to me. They too said to me that girls were stupid. Trust me in a few years from now, boys will be fighting to get your attention, you're such a lovely person," Victoria assured her young friend. She smiled she was using the words a good friend of her told her all those years ago.

"Maybe you're right," Angie said a bit comforted

"But I still don't have someone to be my best friend today," she said sadly.

"Maybe you can ask one of the girls?" Victoria suggested.

"Alright I will, I will show those boys that I don't need them," she said, her mood a lot brighter than a few moments ago.

Victoria watched Angie skip happily to school; she smiled and went to sit down for a while:

A flashback entered Victoria's mind.

_It was a warm sunny summer__ day in Los Angele; the eleven year old Victoria had worked all day on her friendship bracelet. It was a blue and green coloured crocheted bracelet with some fringes on the end._

_She hoped Ramon would like it. She admired her older brother, he always had good plans to do fun things and he was befriended with Diego de La Vega. Diego de La Vega was the bravest and kindest boy of the whole pueblo. Every boy, including Ramon looked up to him. And every girl secretly wished to marry him. Although she would never admit it, she too was one of them…_

"_Good morning Ramon, what do you think of my friendship bracelet?" she asked._

"_It's beautiful__, look this is the one I made," he said while he proudly showed her his bracelet._

"_Oh I love it, let's exchange bracelets," she suggested._

"_Sorry hermana, I don't want to be your best friend. I'm going to ask Diego," Ramon announced proudly._

_He must have seen Victoria's disappointed face so he said: "Ask Francisco maybe he wants to be your friend."_

_So Victoria went to Francisco.._

"_I don't want to be best friends with a girl, girls are stupid. I want to be friends with Diego," Francisco told her._

"_Boys are stupid!" an angry Victoria yelled and ran out the house._

_She ran until she wasn't feeling angry anymore the only feeling left in her slender body was sadness, sadness because her brothers thought she was stupid. For a second she considered skipping school, but the Escalantes were brave people she had to go even if she'd rather clean the latrines. She reluctantly walked towards the mission school; she kicked her feet in the loose sand._

_She was surprised when she hear__d a familiar voice: "Good morning, it's a lovely day isn't it? The sun is shining, the birds are chirping,.." _

_It was Diego, he was trying to cheer her up, but she hadn't eye for nature's beauty today._

"_It's a terrible day!" she replied._

"_Oh my, the day has just started and you already hate it, maybe something good is still going to happen, give this day a chance. Now tell me what's troubling you," he said and went to sit down beside her. _

'_He doesn't seem to mind his clothes are getting filthy,' Victoria thought to herself. She liked that although he was a caballero he treated her as his equal. _

"_I wanted to be best friends with Ramon or Francisco, but they said girls were stupid," she explained._

"_You are a lovely person Vicky," sounded the caballero gentle voice.._

_Diego was the only person who could call her Vicky without making it sound childish._

"_And you are a girl, so I __think we've proven girls aren't stupid," he said smilingly._

"_You are the only boy who feels that way," Victoria said, still not entirely convinced._

"_Trust me in a few years boys will be standing in line just to get a glimpse of your beauty. Every boy of this pueblo will want you to become his princes," Diego assured her._

"_Every boy?" she asked. Would Diego want to marry her when she was older? She sure hoped he would._

"_Every boy," Diego assured her while he fetched something from his pocket. It was a beautiful leather bracelet with silhouettes of galloping horses and roses engraved in it._

"_Victoria Escalante, will you accept this bracelet as a token of my friendship?" he sincerely asked._

"_Are you serious, you're not playing some kind of joke on me are you?" she asked. After her earlier conversation with her brothers she was a bit careful to trust a boy, even this kind, handsome one sitting beside her._

"_I never joke when matters of the heart are concerned," the young don replied earnestly. _

"_I would love to be your friend!" Victoria exclaimed and hugged him tightly._

_He put the leather bracelet around her slender wrist. _

"_It's a bit too big," he said._

'_Oh no, he wasn't having second thoughts was he?' She thought to herself._

"_No it's just fine," she tried to assure him, but when she lowered her arm, her precious bracelet almost slipped from her hand. _

"_I will make an extra hole, so it will fit you, just wait a second," Diego said while he went to the blacksmith._

_He was only gone a few minutes but to Victoria it seemed like hours. Patience was never her strong point._

_When he returned he carefully put on the bracelet: "Ah a perfect fit. Now you won't loose it," he said._

_Victoria's eyes were glowing from joy: "I will cherish it my whole life! Thank you Diego."_

"_You're welcome mi amiga," he said._

"_I have something for you too," she proudly said and knotted her bracelet around Diego's wrist._

"_It's beautiful, just like you," Diego said._

_He thinks I'm beautiful! An amazed Victoria thought to herself._

_The school bell rang to announce school was starting so they quickly walked to school. It's needless to say Victoria had the best day ever. It appeared Diego was right after all, she just had to give this day a chance._

"Dreaming of your masked hero, are you?" Diego's voice interrupted Victoria's lovely daydream.

"No actually I was thinking of you," she said a mysterious smile decorating her face.

"Me?" he asked surprised.

"Yes they are having friendship day at the mission school and it reminded me of our friendship days," she explained.

"Those were good days huh. I just remember I have some business to attend to, I'll see you later Victoria," he said and left the tavern.

"See you later Diego," she shook her head and sighed. What had happened to the brave young teenager he used to be. He had become a docile, intelligent, dreamer.

She didn't see Diego during lunchtime, but an excited Angie came to drink a lemonade.

"Hi Angie, how has it been?" she asked interested.

"Great, I'm best friends with Phoebe. The teacher let us fill in a questionnaire to see how well we know our best friend and Phoebe and I aced the test! We could be soulemates," she said excitedly.

"I'm so happy for you Angie," Victoria said.

"Thanks for the lemonade Senorita Victoria, I'm back to school, bye," and the little girl hurried back accompanied by Phoebe.

During siesta Victoria took a little nap and again her dreams took her on a journey to her past:

_The children were sitting__ on their desks two by two. _

"_In order to truly get to know your best friend you have to fill in some questions about each other," the teacher said._

"_I will help those who can't write yet, and Don Diego will assist me," the teacher continued._

"_First question: what's your friend's favourite colour.._

_2: favourite smell:_

_3: favourite song:_

_4: favourite animal:_

_5: favourite food:_

_Victoria knew all the answers!_

"_Your favourite smell is how the air smells after it has rained on a hot summer day," she said to Diego._

"_Correct," he replied._

"_And your favourite smell is that of the roses blooming in our garden," Diego answered on his turn._

"_Yes that's right," Victoria was amazed Diego knew things about her. _

_They both knew all the answers: Diego's favourite colour was green, symbol of hope. Victoria's was red, the colour of passion._

_They both had the same favourite song, the song on which Diego had learned ten year old Victoria how to waltz. Diego's favourite animal was a horse and Victoria's a kitten. Diego's favourite food was Vanilla flan, and Victoria's the taste of a ripe apple freshly picked from the tree._

"_And the couple who knows each other the best are Victoria and Diego!" the teacher announced the winners of the little quiz. _

_A loud applause echoed through the classroom._

A soft knocking on the door woke Victoria up;

'Oh my I've slept so long it's almost evening!' Victoria thought to herself.

"I'm coming!" she shouted while she went to unlock the door.

She was startled when she saw her best friend's face.

"Did I wake you?" he asked.

'I must still look sleepy' she thought to herself and quickly ran a hand through her hair in order to make herself presentable: "Yes luckily you knocked or I would still be in dreamland and in a few minutes the evening customers will be arriving and its Pilar's day off," she said.

"Need any help," Diego volunteered.

"That would be great Diego," Victoria said smilingly.

"What shall I do?" he asked.

"You can start with setting the tables," she replied.

'That should keep my clumsy friend busy for a while, I should have all the vegetables cut when he's finished,' she thought to herself.

But again she underestimated her best friend: after a few minutes Diego stood in her kitchen asking what he should do next.

"uhhm, you could help me cut the vegetables," a surprised Victoria suggested.

And to her surprise Diego cut the vegetables with the expertise of a chef cook.

"Where did you learn that?" she asked astonished.

"At collage, I volunteered at the school's restaurant," Diego said.

"Well you are welcome to volunteer at the tavern any time," Victoria said teasingly.

"Be careful maybe I will," Diego replied his eyes held hers for a few seconds. And unlike other times it was Victoria's turn to lower her gaze and change the subject.

So she asked: "Diego, do you remember the questionnaire we had to fill in on friendship day?"

"The test to see how well we knew each other, of course I remember. The teacher couldn't invent a single question that we didn't know," he said.

"Let's do the test," Victoria suggested excitedly.

"What's my favourite colour?" she asked.

"That's an easy one: red," Diego replied.

"Correct. Is yours still green?" she asked.

"Yes it is," he said.

"What's my favourite food?" she asked.

"Anything you don't have to cook yourself," Diego replied.

"Right again, and your favourite is my famous chicken enchilada isn't it?"

"That and you're sweet vanilla flan," Diego added and licked his lips as if he could taste the sweet dessert.

"Of course how could I forget dessert," Victoria laughed.

"Favourite song?" she asked.

They both said the title of their waltz song at the same time.

They laughed. "Well it seems we have the same taste in music," Diego grinned.

"I remember you had to listen all afternoon to that song, I kept stepping on your toes," Victoria reminisced.

"But at least you held your face up elegantly and didn't look at your feet as a lot of beginners do," he said.

"Maybe that's why I stepped on your toes so much," she said laughingly.

She didn't dare to reveal it was because she was too enchanted by his handsome face.

"Well let's see if you still know how to waltz properly," Diego suggested. He extended his hand and asked: "May I have this dance senorita?"

"Here in the kitchen?" she asked surprised.

"Why not," and before Victoria could object she was drawn into his strong arms and they fluently waltzed through the kitchen, they danced through the curtains and where about to hover through the dining room when they heard an amazed gasp: "Don Diego, Senorita Escalante?"

It was Mendoza.

They immediately stopped dancing: "Hola Sergeant Mendoza," Diego greeted him.

"Hola, I was wondering if I could have a plate of your delicious stew," the sergeant asked.

"Of course, I will get it immediately," Victoria said.

"Well I see you have work to do? Thank you for the dance amiga," he said.

"And thank you for all your help Diego," Victoria replied.

It was already late in the evening when Victoria had worked her way through the big pile of dishes and cleaned all the tables. She could leave it for Pilar in the morning but Victoria didn't like to leave her kitchen messy. She was about to lock up the door for the night, when she noticed a sachet hanging on the door knob. A tag with her name on was attached to it. Inside was the most beautiful bracelet she had ever seen. A real piece of craftsmanship. Red and green stones their two favourite colours side by side, almost becoming one … There was a note in the sachet. She immediately recognised Diego's handwriting: _To_ _Vicky on this special day, forever your friend Diego de La Vega_.

She sighed contently, now she understood why he suddenly had to attend some business this morning, he was probably making her this gorgeous piece of jewellery. Diego was the best friend ever!


End file.
